Amina Mohammed Denies Involvement In $300 Million Rosewood Scandal

@POLITICSNGR
Former
minister of Environment and current UN deputy secretary general, Amina
Mohammed has denied reports about her involvement in a massive $300
million illegal exportation of African rosewood from Nigeria to China.

Mohammed
was in hot water on Friday after the Environmental Investigation Agency
released a documentary detailing the role the former minister played in
signing thousands of backdated permits in January 2017 which were used
to clear the illegal export into China.

Speaking to theCable, Mohammed said she instead spent her time at the ministry to battle Illegal exportation of Wood. She said;

“No
permits were backdated or illegally signed by me. We are therefore
appalled if any legally obtained or forged certificates were used by
unscrupulous rosewood traders to circumvent exportation procedures,” she
said.Not only do I decry fraud and corruption, we also categorically
reject any allegations of corruption or coercion in our effort to better
address illegal logging and exportation.

I categorically deny
receiving any bribe. It has never been in my character. I never demanded
neither did I collect any bribe, either cash or material".

She said the first thing she noticed after her appointment as a minister was the level of deforestation. She said;

"One
of the first issues I had to deal with was deforestation. It was a huge
concern as Nigeria was losing its forest cover at an alarming rate… For
me, protecting the environment is sacrosanct. "